Poultry Farming (How to set up and operate a profitable poultry farm)

Agriculture also called farming or husbandry according to Wikipedia is the cultivation of animals, plants, food and other product used to sustain life. In this article, we will be looking at poultry farming, how to set up and operate a profitable poultry farm anywhere in the world regardless of where you are.

Before we start, let me first tell you one of the 2016 prophecies said

by most ministers of God throughout the world. They said “Our youth who think always of traveling should use the money to go into agriculture or foodstuff (Farming, Animal Husbandry) business because in the New Year, God will bless them. They will achieve greatness by transacting in agriculture and foodstuff and become successful in export and import business. The money I am talking about could be in the region of ($30,000, $50,000, $100,000) Monthly.

Am not just writing articles i no nothing about here, this is what i do myself and i gain a lot from it… Now let’s get down to work

In this article which i also did some explanatory video which you can watch and download below, we will be looking at poultry farming, how to set up and operate

a profitable poultry farm making over $50,000 (10 million Naira ) or more yearly. Am going to be using Nigeria as case study.

Poultry farming has become one of the most important aspects of agriculture in almost all countries including Nigeria for some reasons.

1. It create business opportunity for Entrepreneurs

2. It provides employment for job seeking citizens

3. It is the kind of business that can never dry up

4. It brings in lot of income

5. It Boost up the country economy

Chicken and its product (Egg) is one of the most pretentious food or meat in the world which we all agree to i think. You and I need the proteins derived from chicken to maintain healthy living. It is generally believed that every child needs not less than an egg a day for their normal growth while every adult needs like ten in a week; Poultry also provides meat for delicacies.

No tribe, religion or any country forbids chicken meat. Everyone likes it, that’s why poultry products sell very fast and in high demand.

Apart from chicken been used as food, poultry farming is so much profitable. A good poultry farmer earns above $75,000 ( N15 million ) per annum depending on how big the farm is. All these benefits are open to you if you start your own poultry farm today.

There are basically three types of chicken. They are:

1. The Pullets: popularly known as Layers: Layers are reared for egg production and most lucrative but more stressing compare to the other once.

2.The Broiler Chicken: Broilers are reared for meat production; The Broilers grows very faster and are ready for sale at 12 weeks from hatch.

3. The Third is the Cockerel: This is also reared for meat production. . Cockerels grow slower and can take up to twenty four weeks before they are matured for marketing.

Cockerels are still the strongest and are reliable in terms of survival and withstanding bad weathers. They are more resilient, and can absorb shocks far better than Layers and Broilers.

Poultry farming requires having the right knowledge to be able to do the right things so as to get the right result. It requires hard work and prompt attention to details. Poultry Farming is little capital intensive but if you are starting on a micro scale (Home back yard) where you have a small space at your back yard, it is not. I can say, starting small is the best way to enter and learn the business. If you wants to start on a higher scale, You need to prepare for this, It’s all like trading money to make more money but be assured to get back whatever amount you invested in the business in multiple times within a short period of time.

Some people have the money to invest into the business but have no time to supervise the farm, instead they get people to operate it for them. Having money to set up the business is really not the problem but the problem is to have the knowledge of the business and that is what makes the business to succeed. If you are the kind that have the money but not much time, ensure that the person you give it to manage for you have the knowledge to know what to do at the right time. Be sure that he can be trusted; if you are not sure of the trust, please just keep your money in a fixed account.

Before you venture into poultry farming business in Nigeria, you need to seat back and do proper calculation and planning; make sure you have idea of all the costs involved.

In this article, I’ll be endeavor to give you the ideas of what is involved so you can build upon it; through commenting, people can as well add their own ideas and findings to compliment the write up. So, I hope to make this article as simple as I can, and as we keep adding updates it may end up becoming one stop destination on information about poultry farming in Nigeria!

Currently they seem to be no high poultry farms in Nigeria like the ones we used to see in Europe, USA and other counties. Any investors who have the needed capital to venture into it will have reasons to smile within a short period of time. Till now, Nigeria still import chicken from other countries because the ones the local farmers produces are not enough to meet the demand of the over 180 Million citizens.

There is certainly huge market for poultry rearing in Nigeria but the question is: Who will take advantage of the opportunity in the industry to create wealth. Remember, the very successful and huge companies in the world also started from somewhere. Now, if you ready to get started in poultry farming, these are the basic requirements you need to set up your farm.

LAND

The no 1 thing you need to get is a land. A plot of land of 120 x 60 square meters is okay for setting up medium scale poultry farm in Nigeria, at least for a start. Once you have a land that is big enough for your farm set up, almost half of your needs have been taken care of. Land is the hardest and the most expensive part of poultry business in Nigeria most especially, places like Lagos, Abuja and some other big city.

You may not be allowed to carry out Poultry farming in populated environment or residents due to the smell that is associated with poultry rearing and the subsequent health impact, my advice is that you look for land in a rural area or in farms. There you will get lands cheaper, stays out of trouble and do your production there, while your products will be transported to the urban area for sell.

It will be good if you can get your own poultry farm land and build a permanent farm rather than to rent. When you rent, the owner might decide to send you packing and relocating always comes with huge cost.

Good news is that their are very cheap lands in Ilorin and Ibadan that i now of. They cheap and very fertile for even crop production and also have easy and good road access. You can contact me on my whatz app number if interested 08030990904.

CHICKEN CAGE

This is the second most important part of your poultry farm set up and it is not as expensive as buying or acquiring a land. You can get a semi Automated galvanized cage for your layers birds just exactly as you have seen in the picture. A standard cage should consist of 90 birds, 3 per cube and is usually sold in Nigeria for around #65,000 to #70,000. If you will be going for Broilers or Cockerel, i will suggest deep litter but the thing is there are so many ways you can build the birds house but make sure that the sizes of the building is spacious enough for the chicken to run around.

The house should be constructed in a way that you will be able to control the ventilation and air movement. Get a qualified engineer to do designing and building for you if you are going for large scale construction. Else, you can just visit any good poultry farm to see how the house is constructed.

When planning out your chicken house, always remember that space is very important. Don’t compromise on this to avoid frequent loss of your birds through suffocation and contamination and even production of quality eggs.

DAY OLD CHICK

This is where the business starts. Buy chicks from chicken hatchery that mainly deals with the supplying of different species of day-old chickens. It’s better to buy from the hatchery, Chicken hatchery usually produce good quantity of day old chicks through the use of incubators.

The estimated price for day old chicken in Nigeria is N150 – N300. Negotiate the prices with the sellers; you can get it cheaper if you’re buying up to 500 chicks. You must buy your day-old-chicks from a healthy source. The productivity of your chicks depends on how healthy they are! Do not pay anybody money until you see the chickens you are buying 419s are everywhere trying to take advantage of people who have the money. Be wise with your money and pay only when the goods are supplied!

Raising hens from baby chicks requires you to check on them often during the first few weeks (Seven to nine weeks). It’s really fun to watch them turn from downy, fluffy little balls into feathered-out, gawky adolescent pullets. A chick does not have the ability to maintain its own body temperature without an external source of heat.

FEEDS

To be successful in poultry farming especially egg production, feeds is one of the major aspect we need to look at. Just as to be healthy as a human, one needs quality food so also birds. The kind of food they eat really tells on them that is why one need to give them quality foods only.

Their are now many feed companies out there selling feeds that are not quality due to increase in maize and other ingredients . We still have some i can recommend but the question is how sure are we that these feeds that we buy in market everyday contain all the essential nutrients that our chickens need for their healthy and proper growth.

Different breed of chickens need different feeds which are changed at a particular stage in their life span…eg layers, broilers etc. How do we then tackle the problem of feeds. In some poultry, chickens are feed with pap end waste product mixed with ground palm kernel nuts which are not really healthy for chickens while some poultry practice pasture method where the chickens goes around looking for what to eat. These methods delay the maturation period and produce a less weight birds than those feed with real nutrious and standard feed. Its now advisable to produce our chicken feed ourselves because of the economy of the country and to be 100% sure of the feed’s composition. Feed companies can produce imbalance feed that met lack some addictive nutrients required by the birds with a view of maximizing profit. Observation stated that we save 30% when we produce a 50kg bag of feed when compared to the same quantity purchased from feed companies but if you need quality feeds, you can try out our feed at Ken Feeds.

Below are my outlines of taking care of chicks

After you have gotten your chick, once those baby balls of fluff arrive home, you’ll want to have everything ready for them to settle into their brooder and stay warm and happy. Plan to check on them at least five times a day during the first couple of weeks of life, and less after that.

You’ll need to monitor their temperature, keep them safe from pets, predators and over handling by children, keep their feed and water clean.

Make sure your baby chicks have everything they’ll need on the first day home. As they get older, you will use different feeders, but for the first week or two, plastic chick feeders like the ones you see above will make life a lot easier for you. Light must be available at all time in your poultry farm to keep the chickens warm, especially during raining season when the humidity is always very low. Look for reliable source of power to supply your hens house with heat and light.

Chicks love to stomp in their feed, tip it over, and generally make a mess. They’re also not terribly smart and can eat quite a lot of shavings or bedding while they pick spilled feed off the floor. These feeders are perfect. They’re at the right height when placed on the brooder floor.

Caring For Your Growing Chickens. After the baby chick stage passes, you’ll have young pullets and cockerels and, once they turn one year old, hens and roosters. Some basic daily chores involving keeping their food and water fresh and collecting eggs is the basis of ongoing chicken care, but you’ll want to make sure they’re protected from predators and staying healthy as well.

NOTE: Most layers will start laying eggs the moment they are 18 weeks old but some wait till they are about 22 weeks old. Whichever way, Layer farming is considered the most lucrative of all poultry farming because two things are achieved from layers, they lay eggs which fetch good money in the market, and are equally sold for the meat.

A full crate of pullet eggs sells for about N750, while a crate of semi-pullet sells for N850 wholesale price. If your Layers are large enough to produce 10,000 crates of large eggs which sells for N850, you will be making at least N850 X 10,000 = N8,500,000 From eggs alone!

NOTE: To get 10,000 creates of eggs, you only need 1000 Birds or even Less. Let me do the calculation. 1000 birds will produce at least 30 creates of egg daily (1000 / 30 ). So 30 creates multiply by 1 month which is ( 30 x 30 = 900 creates monthly ). Layers birds lay for at least 16 months. So ( 900 x 16 = 14,400 creates ). This is even more than 10,000 creates. Can you see how profitable this business is?

The chickens is also another big gain! A fully grown chicken sells for between N1,500 and N2,500 (N1,500 to N2,000 at wholesale price) depending on the size and maturity level. Therefore, ten thousand chickens will give you N1, 500 x 10,000 = N15,000,000!

What are you then waiting for? Go ahead and give it a try – am very sure you’ll have reason to smile soonest!!!

NOTE: If interested in setting up your poultry farm, We at ken farms can help you handle the set up. From Start to Finish. We have set up over 10 farms already this year…. ALSO CHECK ONMY COMPLETE eBOOK ON POULTRY FARMING

If you will be going in for Poultry Farming, You need addition resources to make your poultry business a successful one.

The First thing you need in other to succeed in this business is the proper business plan. Click Here to read about how to Get The Latest 2017 Poultry Business Plan For Your Poultry Business Join over 1,700 poultry farmers who have made our Poultry Farming eBook their companion towards starting their poultry farms and managing it effectively.You aren’t yet serious in your poultry business until you get this eBook. And the best part is that it contains complete Poultry Business Plan. Click Here to buy the poultry farming eBook

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